Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

When the 27-year-old Brooklyn street artist Swoon had her first one-person gallery exhibition at New York's Deitch Projects in 2005, the area surrounding the gallery was so overrun with fans and friends that neither cars nor pedestrians could pass through. Reviews in all of the major New York papers, and even national news sources like Newsday, raved--crediting her intricate paper cut-outs and hand-pulled block prints of realistically-rendered street people (often friends and family doing ordinary things) with depicting no less than the poetry of urban life. Her figures, according to Newsday, are rendered with breathtaking precision and] radiate humanity and compassion. Most people know of Swoon through her wheat-pasted cut-outs, which have appeared throughout New York for the better part of the last decade. Usually seen in a state of decay, they are powerful time-based public artworks that only get more potent as they age. For the past two years, Swoon has been traveling the world, creating exhibitions and workshops. Published to accompany the artist's highly anticipated fall 2008 exhibition at Deitch's Long Island City project space, this first monograph documents exhibitions from 2005 to 2007, as well as collaborations created in Russia, Ukraine and throughout the United States.

Synopsis

This first monograph on the street artist Swoon is a crash course on the incredible range of her diverse artistic practices. Filled with brilliant color photographs, the book brings reader to streets around the world to see her life-size prints and paper cutouts that transform as natural elements slowly erode and destroy them. It travels across the waters to include striking images from her most recent projects, Swimming Cities, which show a team of craftsmen and collaborators scavenging junk to create makeshift steamships that are part floating artwork, part performance, and part experiments in communal living. And it brings readers inside her art collective, Toyshop, which orchestrates organic public theater that includes everything from street parties to public demonstrations. Woven together seamlessly, and accompanied by essays from fellow artists and famed gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, this book showcases the work of one of the art worldand#8217;s brightest stars.

Synopsis

Liu Bolin first became invisible in 2006. When the artist village in Beijing where he worked as a sculpandshy;torandrsquo;s assistant was demolished, he decided to protest. He camouflaged himself in the ruins with acrylic paints and photographed the finished product, marking the first of his Hiding in the City series. Since then, he has andldquo;disapandshy;pearedandrdquo; in many different places around the worldandmdash;from politically fraught areas in China to grocery stores, toy stores, and more. His work protests specific political acts of the Chinese government and offers commentary on consumer culture.

This comprehensive book showcases Bolinandrsquo;s most striking photographs and sculptures and explores the techniques he uses to create his unforgettable art. Bolin has also helped other people disappear, including the members of Bon Jovi for the bandandrsquo;s recent album cover, as well as the fashion designers Jean Paul Gaultier, Missoni, Valentino, and more, and a selection of these photographs is featured throughout the book.

About the Author

SWOON has been creating street art in New York City since 1999. She studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and has traveledand#160;internationally to create exhibits and host workshops.and#160;Her work can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Tate Modern, or on the streets of Brooklyn.